


A Thousand Years Later

by wefewwehappyfew



Series: Ghosts that we knew [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: And of course I needed to write this, F/M, also I was missing these two dolts dearly, anyhow it will take them a while to sort this out, but hey here is the first step, probably will continue writing about them in the future, reconciliations and forgiveness, the death thing is mostly a mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 14:48:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10192313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wefewwehappyfew/pseuds/wefewwehappyfew
Summary: - Heh. I was debating upon writing this because yes, it kind of contradicts canon as Helena as of Book 7 is still angry about her death, and rightfully so, and will probably never forgive the Baron for it. But then again, if Harry can forgive Dumbledore and Snape (and such a huge basis of the rebuilding of relationships, lives and everything in general after any breach in them, call it wars, call it arguements, call it whatever you like, needs forgiveness as its setting stone, as we see by Harry’s example), I thought that it would be an interesting idea having  Helena actually forgive the Baron.- Of course, with all this, you have to take into account my previous drabbles in this series and the headcanon that these two were actually friends first of all. Obviously they do not go exactly back to that friendship (Or to something else, which lbh the Baron would love.) (and lbh as tempted as I was to have them kiss at the end, I did not do it for this very reason), they’ve been more or less a thousand years  with this  (awful) problem between them. But hey, it is a first step to working things out.





	

Even after all this time, every time she appears in the same room where he is, even if she doesn’t look at him, he feels the same hooks upon his heart that he felt when he was alive, and his chains feel heavier.

This has not changed in a thousand years, and it probably never will. Because he understands he deserves it.

The rarely ever cross a word. He never speaks, unless it is completely necessary, and she never speaks unless it is to the students of her house, to help them in any way she can.

(It fills his whole self with an unfanthomable sadness, seeing her with those children, because he thought of the ones they would never have. Of what could have been.)

The whole of Hogwarts seems in a sort of trance after the end of the war and the defeat of Voldemort.  Even the Friar, who is now by the Baron’s side, seems far from his usual cheery disposition.

“You should go speak to her.” He says, and the Baron looks at him surprised

“To whom?”

“To the woman your ghostly heart has been pining for, my friend.” The Friar nods “And that has been doing so at least since I’ve known you both. Which soon wil be… let me think… Ah, 648 years already!”

It was true that he had been there for quite a long time, the first ghost after the Lady and the Baron to fill the role of House Ghost. And that the Baron himself had appreciated his company, even if he never told him.

“Anyhow, what I am saying, good Baron…” The Friar continues “Is that maybe now it is the time to try.”

“I don’t think it will ever be.” He sighs.

“Why not? Evil has been defeated. Now it is the time to celebrate life (or un-life, if you prefer the term) to remind those we love that we are here for them. And whatever happened between you two, I am sure that you will find it in your hearts to let it go.” he ponders “After all, you love her, and she loves you.”

“Don’t speak of what you don’t know, Friar.” He replies, a little more cutting than intended, but the Friar seems unfazed, for once.

“I speak of what I see, Baron” he says, amused, nodding towards the front. 

The Baron does not know why he looks. But he does, and finds her looking at him. A small smile draws on her lips, or so he thinks, before she looks again to her companion, a blonde-haired girl from her house that he had seen with the Lady more than once.

“Told you so, my friend.” He smirks, and as the Lady approaches them, he nods again “Baron, Milady.”

And the Friar leaves them alone, and the Baron is pretty sure he sees the Lady blush.

“Would you… would you like to go somewhere more private?” She asks and he feels tongue-tied, but he nods and follows her to the Astronomy Tower. 

It is completely empty, save for them.

And again, the way the moonlight reflects on her makes his heart (or what he thinks is his heart), skip a beat.

And again, the silence between them is awkward. Then again, they understand, unlike the others.

“This has practically not changed since our time.” She finally breaks the silence, wandering around and then looking at him  “don’t you think?”

“I q-quite agree.” He says, looking down.

He doesn’t know why he does it, but he does it and she approaches him, and touches his cheek.

“But we have changed, haven’t we?” There is hope in her voice, and he cannot help to rest his cheek against her palm, the most solid he has felt in quite a while.

The truth is that there are some things that stay, as much as they hurt. But they have changed, in some things for the better, and others for the worse.

“Of that” he finally speaks, still avoiding her gaze “Of that I am not that sure.”

She takes his hands, chains and all, between hers.

“Of course there are some things that will never change. But we are older now, and wiser.”

“And we carry too much pain on our shoulders.” he finally looks at her.

“Perhaps it is time to put that pain aside.” she replies. “Perhaps it is time we forgave each other, and most importantly, ourselves.”

“But how can I? How can I forgive myself when you haven’t forgiven me?”

“And if I had?” her tone is again hopeful.

“You haven’t.” he cannot help but say “You haven’t forgiven me in a thousand years. I understand that I deserve it, but why the change of heart now?”

“It is not as sudden as you think.” 

She releases his hands and goes again to the window, looking again at the night sky, the moonlight reflecting through her. 

“When I told you that night such a long time ago that I loved you I did not lie.” she explains, and turns to face him “And I still love you, Alfred.”

Hearing his name from her lips acompanied by the words _I love you_ , after all this time, makes his heart soar and the chains feel lighter.

“Helena…”

——–

Helena cannot help the smile that forms at the corner of her lips when she hears Alfred saying her name after all this time.  That was what hurt the most. Knowing that they could have been happy together.

_If only both of them had listened to the other…_

But of course, it does not last long.

She sighs when she sees his incredulity, and his sadness, both hidden under a very well rehearsed hieratism. Merlin’s beard, he sometimes could be so… Ugh.

"How do I know that you are not lying to me again?”

“Because I did not lie the first time!”

Helena tries her best to contain the anger that is starting to boil at the pit of her stomach (or whatever is supposed to be where her stomach was, there’s still much of the ghostly condition that is still not known.)

“You left.”

“Doesn’t mean I was lying.”

“You didn’t come back, even when I asked you.”

“Well, you **did** kill me.”

Again that same silence. That same awkwardness between them both. Of course, the cause had been quite a deep and terrible one. But why when she was ready to forgive him, to give him what he had wanted after all this time, her forgiveness, he comes up with this?

“You have not forgiven me.” he says, not looking at her. “You never will, and I understand. But why bring me here?”

“Because you are wrong, and it wouldn’t hurt you to listen sometimes, my love.”

It is surprising, how the last two words come to her lips, easier than what she thought at first and with no malice in her tone (though she wonders what will he listen or think he has heard)

( _By his reaction, though, she thinks he is surprised too._ )

“What did you just say?”

Helena sighs.

“Thank Merlin you are starting to listen, Alfred.” she explains quite clearly “So I am going to take the opportunity to say all what has not been said in this time. I love you. And after all this time, and even with the pesky matter of my death and you being responsible for it, I love you. I did not lie that time when I said I did love you. But I had spent my whole life under the shadow of my mother. I just… I needed to find who I truly was.”

“But you could have…”

“Please, let me finish.” And she continues. “I was strangely happy when I left Hogwarts. I felt free. I roamed the world and learnt from the greatest witches and wizards in the continent, who had no clue of whose daughter I was. They simply saw in me a student ready to learn whatever they wanted to teach me. You just cannot imagine how good that felt, knowing that I could be something beyond Rowena Ravenclaw’s daughter. And when I finally decided to make Albania my home, I discovered that I could do good for everyone, no matter their blood…”

She looks at him for a moment and he is silent. With a simple nod, he urges her to continue.

“… You were the only thing I missed from my life back at England. Not my mother, or anything else. You.” She explains “So when you appeared, my heart soared. But that feeling was to be short-lived, as with all the happy moments in my life. You wanted to bring me back to what you called "home”. Not understanding that my home was in Albania. Not in Coventry or in Hogwarts.“

"Could it had ever been?”

“Maybe in another life. But then again, I wish I had understood that you could have never called my place in Albania "home”. Or that maybe, our true home was each other.“ She replies. "I was angry, of course, about dying by your hand. But if there is something I have understood, specially these last days, it is that anger leads to nothing. And it’s been more than a thousand years.”

Even if there’s a part of her that would keep that grudge a thousand years more (and let’s face it, not without reason), Helena knows that they both deserve peace, and a new start, after all this time, would probably give it to them.

She looks at Alfred and she notices how something is changing in his expression. It is quite subtle, but she still knows how to read him. Or maybe even she does it better than when they were alive.

When she approaches him again, he does not avoid her, but he does not look at her either. He looks at his hands, that have carried those chains for a thousand years.

She looks at them too, and takes them in hers, her thumbs caressing his palms in circles, as they used to do to each other after long days of essay writing. They reach his wrists, and touch his chains, which feel surprisingly heavy even to her. 

_So that is the extent of his penance, of his regret. That is what he has been carrying with him all this time, and it is true._

Helena does not know what to say, or what to do. 

Until she remembers that time when he knelt before her, face buried in her hands, after he knew who her father truly was. 

In a certain way, this is different, but it does have its similarities. After all, this is a moment after a revelation. For him, it was her parentage, for her, it is his suffering.

And maybe the same reaction might bring a different outcome.

So she kneels. She kneels and kisses his wrists, not even knowing if this will ease the weight or make them disappear, or do nothing.

“Helena…” he manages to say, and it sounds as if he is holding tears.

She looks at his hands. The chains are still there. But he helps her stand up, and she looks at him. There’s relief in his expression, and this is the happiest she has seen him in ages.

“They aren’t as heavy as they were.” he confesses to her.

And, for the first time in a thousand years, Helena, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, and Alfred, son of Lord Leofric of Mercia and the Lady Godiva, smile at each other at the same time.

For the first time in a thousand years, they are at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> \- Heh. I was debating upon writing this because yes, it kind of contradicts canon as Helena as of Book 7 is still angry about her death, and rightfully so, and will probably never forgive the Baron for it. But then again, if Harry can forgive Dumbledore and Snape (and such a huge basis of the rebuilding of relationships, lives and everything in general after any breach in them, call it wars, call it arguements, call it whatever you like, needs forgiveness as its setting stone, as we see by Harry’s example), I thought that it would be an interesting idea having Helena actually forgive the Baron.
> 
> \- Of course, with all this, you have to take into account my previous drabbles in this series and the headcanon that these two were actually friends first of all. Obviously they do not go exactly back to that friendship (Or to something else, which lbh the Baron would love.) (and lbh as tempted as I was to have them kiss at the end, I did not do it for this very reason), they’ve been more or less a thousand years with this (awful) problem between them. But hey, it is a first step to working things out.


End file.
